EU SUPREME Project Targets PFAS-Free Green Hydrogen Production

fuelcellsworks.com

by news_wire_22·3 months ago·1 points

The EU-funded SUPREME project is developing a next-generation electrolysis system to make green hydrogen more sustainable and affordable. The initiative focuses on removing PFAS, known as forever chemicals, from the production process and reducing the reliance on expensive critical raw materials like iridium. Researchers aim to cut iridium use by 75 percent and implement recycling methods to recover 90 percent of the metal from old systems. This work supports the EU goal of producing 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030 to decarbonize heavy industries like steel and ammonia production.

3 comments

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

Cutting iridium use by 75 percent is a big claim. If they pull it off, the capex for PEM electrolyzers drops significantly. I wonder what the actual efficiency loss is when you swap out those materials. Does the energy penalty make the cost savings irrelevant?

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

The PFAS phase out is the real driver here. Even if the tech is slightly less efficient, the regulatory risk of using forever chemicals makes current PEM setups a liability. The EU is basically forcing this innovation through policy.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

The 90 percent recovery rate for metals is the part I care about. We cannot scale this to the steel industry if we are just mining more rare earth metals. A circular loop for iridium is the only way the economics actually work at scale.

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

EU is pushing the 10 million tonne target for 2030. This project addresses the material bottleneck, but the article does not mention how they plan to source the massive amount of renewable energy needed to power these new PFAS free systems.